IMHO they absolutely cannot do this - to admit to a superficiality would be a very big mistake. They must continue to appear to have real substance, to admit showmanship would again bring up the whole now- you- see- it- now- you- don’t rationales for the war.
Re: the OP. this one doesn’t do much for me. Even when it was happening, I (and others, I"m sure) saw the "RE-Elect George W. Bush across the bottom of the picture.
I neither know nor care why the banner was up. I would be hard pressed, however, to believe that no one in the Administration thought of the PR potential (regardless of the ‘real’ meaning of the banner) at the time.
YES! That’s exactly what they did. That the Iraqi backlash has been as extreme as it turned out to be was something Bush’s handlers didn’t expect. They believed (correctly) that the banner would make for a good photo op but they were too short sighted to see that it could conceivably backfire as spectacularly as it has. They fucked up.
It’s called propaganda you fucking dolt, but if swallowing Bush’s bullshit is an adequate panacea for your cognitive dissonance then by all means continue. Just don’t expect anyone to take you seriously.
Casdave had it exactly right. The visual connotations spoke as loud as, if not louder than, Bush did and everybody knew it.
No, here’s what’s required to believe the Administrations version.
That Bush’s media managers genuinely didn’t consider the possibility that having Bush fly a combat helicopter onto a battleship and give a morale boosting speech under a banner with MISSION ACCOMPLISHED written on it in 20 foot high letters *would *send the impression that the Administration believed the conflict to be a done deal.
All that’s required to believe my version is that:
Someone, somewhere fucked up big time.
There isn’t a 2. That’s fucking it!
I’ll leave it to the rest of the participants in this thread to decide which one is more likely.
Seems stunningly obvious that putting Bush underneath that banner was a calculated photo-op. Just like pretty much every other public appearance made by any sitting president since the invention of the camera. Arguing that it wasn’t a deliberate piece of spin on behalf of the Bush administration is only marginally less stupid than getting upset that a president used the media to manipulate public opinion in the first place.
I recall hearing about the efforts that went into the staging of a presidential appearance and after a bit of googling I found …this
So I agree with the OP that the message we are supposed to take away is what we saw, not what we heard.
And BTW, the President could have made a very dignified and much safer entrance by riding in a helicopter. Although he did look cooler than Dukakis riding in a tank;)
I don’t think anyone in this thread is actually angry that Bush took advantage of the Mission Accomplished banner to get a handy photo op. Much of the anger (mine certainly) is aimed at those whose skills in doublethink would make George Orwell curl up in a fetal ball and cry like a sissy.
These people remind me of Oliver Twist begging for more, except in their case they’re begging for more party line BS.
We did? It’s over? There’s a democracy in Iraq, terrorism has been defeated forever, the troops all came home? Did I miss something? No, pal, you knew damn well what this was about, and what the objections were. Picking one item from a long list of objectives and claiming success on that basis is just silly.
Now, tell us, as honestly as you can: What did you think when you saw the sign and heard the speech? Was it “Golly gee, the Lincoln’s tour of duty is over!”? Was that really all that came to mind? Now, while you’re still trying this honesty stuff, have you ever heard of or thought of this or any alternate explanation until now, or have you advanced any? You needn’t answer if it’s too embarrassing; we know anyway.
Reality can be a bitch. Bush is up against her right now, and he’s losing. But that doesn’t matter - the good people getting killed every day because of his delusions, the delusions shared by so many even today, are what matter.
People, this still is the Straight Dope. It was not a fighter jet, Jack Batty, it was not a helicopter, Ben Hicks, it was a four seater S-3B Viking, designed for anti-submarine warfare, then as an airborn refueler, and now it can carry air-to-ground missiles. It has no guns, no air-to-air capabilities, and is recently been retrofitted to be able to attack ground targets.
The Bush people had a media guy on board before the arrival of the President, and things were set up just so. Just like dozens of Presidents before him at various appearances, only slicker and more professionally staged. He has a big budget for this type of thing. In my opinion, if he had to stand on his perceived intelligence and actual speaking abilities on the fly, his approval ratings would be lower than they are today.
For ElvisL1ves, the mission to overthrow the regime, ousting the Baath Party and the Saddam Hussien power structure was accomplished. Those were the stated goals, as I understood them.
If I make the effort and convince myself that nobody in the administration considered that the banner might send an unintended message, is that somehow supposed to make me feel better?
And here I thought the mission had something to do with protecting America by forcibly disarming Saddam Hussein and finding eliminating his terrible Weapons of Mass Destruction - anthrax, botulinum, maybe even nukes - and stopping him from giving them to terrorists. Silly me.
Yes, UncleBill, this is still the Straight Dope. Adding “as I understood them” in no way makes the preceding clause any less bullshit. You oughta know how poorly weaseling works here. Looks like Marley23 got the main points other than the ones I helpfully listed for you, but left out still another: Getting the people who were responsible for 9/11. Check out Bush’s letter to Congress reluctantly requesting their approval, for one. Another would be this UN resolution, enforcement of which, in his own preferred interpretation, he was willing to defy the UN to achieve.
You swallowed the spin whole, without chewing. There’s no shame in that, really, considering the stress we all were under and how little we knew at the time about Bush’s propensity for lying. But holding to it now is shameful, and even a little silly.
